Arrow: Why Is Oliver Not Suspicious Of Chase’s Easy Surrender?

This has arguably been one of the better seasons of the CW’s hit show, Arrow. While many were disappointed in a lackluster season four, season five has gone back to the darker, grittier tone that fans love. As a fan of all the Arrowverse shows, I have found myself looking forward to Wednesday nights more than Tuesdays when The Flash airs.

A big reason why has to do with this season’s big bad. His name is Prometheus. Or as some like to call him, the throwing star killer. Oh wait, we even know his “real” name. But the name he goes by the most nowadays is Adrian Chase.

Chase is one of the best psychological baddies I have ever witnessed on television. Everything he does is for a reason. And that reason usually has something to do with getting inside of Oliver Queen’s head. He is also almost always a step ahead of Team Arrow, helping with his mind games. As a result, Oliver has been on the brink of giving up on a handful of occasions.

So last week, something just felt a bit off. At the end of the episode, Oliver began to play some mind games of his own. He told Chase that his father wanted to disown him. As a result, Chase essentially got to his knees and gave up. He was taken into custody and ended up in an A.R.G.U.S. cell.

As a result of their win, Team Arrow was seen celebrating. They were all happy to see Chase behind bars. Their mission was complete!

For a few minutes, this whole thing simply did not sit well with me. There was simply no way Chase would just surrender after Oliver mentioned his father wanting to disown him. But then I remembered, we still have two episodes left!

That’s when the promo played for tomorrow’s episode, titled “Missing”, played. And then all made sense again.

As you can tell from the promo above, Chase can still do some damage from the inside of a cell. He has friends on the outside who are capable of helping him. Eventually, they will assist in breaking him out no doubt. But not before they deliver another psychological blow to Oliver and his team.

It seems like Chase is going to have his team capture members of Team Arrow. This will lead to Oliver confronting Chase inside his cell. All of this is likely a part of Chase’s plan. As I mentioned before, he is all about head games. He knows how to position his pieces on the board to account for a move that is about five away.

He is no physical specimen. While is is a skilled fighter, he cannot count on that to take down Oliver. After all, he wants Oliver to suffer as much as possible before he actually kills him. Given this has been Chase’s M.O. this entire time, how does Oliver not feel something is off?

Oliver of all people is always looking over his shoulder. He is not trusting of anyone, except maybe Diggle. This included Felicity for a very long time. So how is it that he is not questioning Chase’s easy laydown? It just feels a little off for the character.

Maybe we will open the next episode with Oliver bringing some of these thoughts to light. But as things stand, we are of the assumption that Oliver thinks this is over. Apparently, that is part of Chase’s plan too. As it seems that part of his mind games is to have Team Arrow members go missing at the hands of Chase while Oliver is in this state of mind.

Only time will tell. How do you feel about Oliver’s belief that this whole thing with Chase is over? Does it seem off to you? Tell us what you think in the comments!